3.1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides systems, apparatus, software, and methods for scheduling appointments, and, more particularly, scheduling appointments efficiently for service providers according to the desires and needs of the consumer. The present invention has applications in the fields of business management and computer science.
3.2. The Related Art
Modern economic activity relies heavily on distribution and transport systems to move goods and service providers from one location to another. The days of local same-town service providers and merchants who would deliver goods to their neighbors door-to-door to stay-at-home spouses or live-in relatives have faded into nostalgic memory, replaced today by overnight carriers delivering goods from central distribution centers tens, even hundreds, of miles away, and service providers who must travel thousands of miles yearly to provide their services at various household and business addresses for two-wage-earner households.
Meeting the demands of scheduling thousands of customers over such large distances and extensive circuits traveled by service providers and delivery vehicles is not a simple task. Now that delivery routes are no longer local, accommodating the demands of customers over hundreds or thousands of square miles of territory efficiently and reliably is a major undertaking for both large corporations and small businesses alike. The problems of operating such routes are further complicated by the highly mobile nature of the customers as well. Since many homes are run by two workers, finding times when both the customer and provider can meet is increasingly difficult and must be arranged between the customer and provider; in short, the customer generally must accept the particular agent and time most convenient to the service provider. Moreover, as systems have become more automated and profit margins tighter, customer choice for specific service providers has suffered.
Many efforts have been made to address these challenges, but no solution has addressed all of the difficulties noted above. U.S. Pat. No. 7,487,105 to Jacobs discloses a method for assigning an order to an opening in a schedule after a customer has selected an appointment window in the schedule. According to the Jacobs system, a customer interested in having a service performed by a service organization calls the organization to make a reservation for the desired service. In order to identify openings in the service organization's existing schedule, the Jacobs method involves iterating through generated virtual free time blocks, which are blocks of free time between the end of the work on one (scheduled) order and the start of travel to another (scheduled) order. The Jacobs system also involves maximizing the free time blocks within a shift by “bumping” one or more contiguous orders within a shift. Thus, the Jacobs method does not have the ability to accept an order without the customer calling the service organization, and the identification of free time blocks is limited in circumstances where customer orders are scheduled for a specific time and cannot be bumped. Moreover, while the Jacobs method identifies free time blocks for the requested orders based on travel time between existing orders, this travel time does not account for the location of the requested order.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0306791 to Rubertone describes a Web-based software application and scheduling method for scheduling service provider appointments with “leads”, i.e., customers who respond, usually by telephone, to an advertisement from the service provider. The locations of appointments are recorded such that a schedule with both locations and drive times between locations is provided to an “appointment setter” who assigns locations and appointment times to individual service providers. The systems and methods described by Rubertone allow only for manual selection and “optimization” of schedules. Thus, the Rubertone method does not provide the ability to accept an order without the customer calling the service organization, the identification of free time blocks is limited in circumstances where customer orders are scheduled for a specific time and cannot be bumped, and the scheduling is done manually.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2011/00777860 to Coughlin, et al., describes techniques for providing a meeting notification and automatic modification service. The techniques include system configured to identify an appointment in a calendar application, identify a geographic location of the appointment, and identify, before the appointment time, a geographic location of a first participant of the appointment. Based on the geographic information, the system may identify a route extending from the geographic location of the first participant to the geographic location of the appointment, and may identify a travel time associated with the route. Based on the travel time and the appointment time, the system may determine whether the first participant is estimated to arrive at the appointment on time and, based on the determination, the system may send a message to participants of the appointment or dynamically reschedule the appointment. Coughlin, et al., do not describe a customer scheduling system in which the customer schedules an appointment for a service call, nor do Coughlin, et al., describe optimizing travel schedules for service providers or offering a customer choices for the arrival of service providers.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0293029 to Olliphant describes a system for arranging meetings between an organizer or initiator and one or more other participants (invitees). The system provides for automating the scheduling of periodic meetings and other types of social occasions, or any other periodic activities. The periodic meetings can be arranged between the user and parties unknown to the user based on common interests that are discovered by the system. In some embodiments, in order to more fully automate the scheduling of these meetings, the system described by Olliphant accounts for factors such as participant availability, participant travel preferences, location preferences, and how meeting frequency. Like Coughlin, et al., Olliphant does not describe a customer scheduling system in which the customer schedules an appointment for a service call, or optimizing travel schedules for service providers or offering a customer choices for the arrival of service providers.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0114638 to Colliau, et al., describes a system for scheduling appointments for service calls, especially those related to inspections for home purchases. The system calculates a total time for performing the task in accordance with user-provided information, and generates a list of available service providers. The list is determined in accordance with the total time for performing the task, schedules of service providers, and a time window specified by the user. The system presents scheduling options for the user, and schedules the appointment selected by the user. Colliau, et al., describe determining scheduling options by adjusting routes of providers according to geography and task time, and “backfilling” appointments of one provider by other providers in order to generate appointment options. However, Colliau, et al., do not describe adjusting the schedule of any one provider to enable that particular provider to accommodate an appointment request.
Thus, current systems and methods for scheduling services still lack important features and capabilities. In particular, these systems do not accommodate sufficiently the particular needs and desires of customers. The present invention meets these and other needs.